I figured I’d ask here since you comrades know history and are on talking terms with reality, unlike a lot of stuff that is available to read online. I am really looking for a short answer, although I know there were many factors playing out over a long long time. Just the bullet points, if you please.
Edit: Thank you for these awesome answers, a lot of exactly what I was looking for and a lot of new directions to explore. Y’all really are the dope-ass bear B-)
If I had to point to one specific thing it would probably be the USSR’s failure to integrate globally, but also a failure to sustain a national project after the great patriotic war. I’ve always found it useful to contrast the failures of the USSR with the current successes of China, and I really believe Chinese leadership has taken the ultimate fate of the Soviets as a harsh lesson.
For instance, the USSR had a very inconsistent foreign policy. Leadership would bounce back and forth between supporting foreign revolutions or claiming neutrality. China otherwise has a consistent policy of minimal to zero intervention in foreign affairs, for better or for worse. China also benefits from integration into the global market, which the USSR failed to do. Instead the USSR attempted to create its own alternative market, like its own standards for automobile parts and etc. I remember this ended up being a problem for Cuba after 1991 because suddenly they had a bunch of Soviet farm equipment that wasn’t compatible with western parts.
So I have to guess there were more problems like that, like with factory equipment, computers, building materials, etc. Competing standards in the capitalist west that were perhaps available or cheaper, but incompatible within the Soviet Union, or perhaps not available at all because of sanctions or trade embargoes.
Does anyone know more about the USSR from this angle? I’m into stuff like standards for nuts/bolts or railway grades.
also yes it can’t be overstated
that the dissolution was illegal and a coup.
I dont think foreign policy is that big of a factor. The US is the quintessential unreliable partner yet it is the most traded with.
That’s because they have massive military threats backing them up. The US is a huge trading partner due to gunboat diplomacy.
There used to be a carrot too. Enough of the ruling class in the USA knew not to fuck around with the money. That the promise of stable money and investments was the drug that would bind the international bourgeoisie to the USA. This is as true in allied countries as enemy countries. Yet the last few admins don’t seem to know how to do anything except press the sanction button and it’s destroying the carrot.
Thanks, global standards never occurred to me as possibly contributing to the collapse. Kind of like how the US has 30/127" bolts and everyone else just calls it 6 mm.
I’m pretty new to Lemmy but hexbear has by far the highest concentration of cool people on the planet. First the anti-genocide stuff and now people who know what they’re about? I’m in heaven. Big hug.
This might be a big part of what I’m missing. Do you know of any trustworthy documentaries about it?
This isnt totally true, they did however mostly keep to their neighbors, Korea, Afghanistan, Vietnam/Cambodia.
Yeah but all of those examples are from over 40 years ago. Current modern China has a neutral, commerce oriented policy towards other nations, and that’s for better or for worse. For instance they’ve sold guns to both sides of the Kashmir conflict. And up until like 2 years ago they sold a ton of weapons and infrastructure to Israel.
China is also notoriously forgiving in regards to debts and loans though, especially when it comes to impoverished African nations.